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As soon as it was confirmed the Tigers would play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, there was some concern locally about the impact that would have on tourism at the holidays with only one of the bowl teams – Iowa State – being from out of town. The exact dollar figures aren’t in just yet. But the game was enough of a success out of the box that the executive director of the game is talking about a more constant presence in the bowl game for the Tigers now that they’ve made their first appearance in the 59-year history of the game which began in Philadelphia. And there is some precedent in college football for what Steve Ehrhart is talking about.

It’s almost like the first half of 2017 was a decade in the making, at least when it comes to commercial real estate. Throughout all four major sectors of the Memphis-area commercial real estate market – industrial, office, retail and multifamily – figures are consistently reaching or exceeding pre-recession marks.

Even though massive deals like Niagara Bottling’s 554,000-square-foot facility and McCormick & Co.’s 615,000-square-foot operation next door in Gateway Global Logistics Center often steal the spotlight, they only paint part of the picture of North Mississippi’s industrial market.

Since it first broke ground in 2014, Panattoni Development Co.’s Gateway Global Logistics Center has delivered 4.4 million square feet of industrial facilities, $276 million in investment and almost 700 jobs to a formerly vacuous tract of land spanning the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

With the holiday shopping season already in full swing, some companies in need of additional space to help alleviate their seasonal storage requirements are finding willing landlords as partners.

Because holiday retail sales are expected to significantly rise above the 10-year average and increase 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion nationally, according to the National Retail Federation, it’s no surprise local companies are looking to work out year-end deals with landlords trying to fill leftover space.

When Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite took office in June 2013, one of the first tasks that landed on his desk was a long-planned regional outlet mall.

The outlet mall, planned for a roughly 33-acre site at Church Road and Interstate 55 in the DeSoto County city, had been on the drawing board for some time, but the recession and its aftermath caused developers and Mississippi officials to put it on hold.

Jacque Beeson entered the world of real estate when she was 19-years-old, working as an assistant to a homebuilder developing subdivisions. She stayed in the residential sector for 17 years, until the local housing market bottomed out in 2010.

The upswing in the industrial real estate sector that started in 2012 and gained momentum in 2013 continued in 2014 and the Memphis market, fueled by several large transactions late in the year, should top 2013's level of around 3.2 million square feet of absorption.

In November, Volvo began operations at its new parts distribution center in Marshall County, Miss.

The 1 million-square-foot distribution center inside Panattoni Development Co.’s Gateway Global Logistics Center is the centerpiece of the company’s streamlined North American parts distribution network and helped solidify the Marshall County and Fayette County, Tenn., region as a major player in local industrial real estate.

Commercial real estate can offer insight into the strength of the local economy. Through the office, retail, industrial and apartment developments that mark the region the economy at work in the real world can be seen.

At just about every turn of the debate at City Hall about changes in health insurance coverage, Memphis City Council members have seen crucial numbers shift about the impact of the changes and the city’s liability.

City government’s open enrollment period for health insurance begins in October and new details of health insurance benefit cuts approved in June go in the mail later this month. Yet Memphis City Council members meet in a special committee session next week to again review conflicting numbers from actuaries on the coverage.

All signs are pointing toward a strong year for the Memphis-area industrial market.

The Memphis market closed the first quarter with 897,829 square feet of absorption and the total vacancy rate for the Memphis market – 10.8 percent - is the lowest the market has experienced in 14 years, according to CB Richard Ellis Memphis.

A burgeoning distribution and logistics market for the Mid-South is taking root in the rich Delta soil in Marshall County, Miss., and Fayette County, Tenn.

Industrial developers and their tenants, lured by the availability of large tracts of land, major infrastructure enhancements, a new intermodal facility and friendly, focused public policy, are increasingly targeting the area.

A burgeoning distribution and logistics market for the Mid-South is taking root in the rich Delta soil in Marshall County, Miss., and Fayette County, Tenn.

Industrial developers and their tenants, lured by the availability of large tracts of land, major infrastructure enhancements, a new intermodal facility and friendly, focused public policy, are increasingly targeting the area.

The health care overhaul's reach stretches far beyond the millions of uninsured Americans it is expected to help. It also could touch everything from the drug choices to doctor bills of people who have insurance through work.

The Memphis industrial market saw the return of speculative development in 2013 and an uptick in tenants seeking blocks of 500,000 square feet or more.

After suffering through a prolonged slump in industrial construction activity following the economic collapse and resulting recession, industrial development outside of Shelby County in the Memphis market roared back to life in 2013.

These days, it seems like office real estate brokers are fighting tooth and nail to find office space for government tenants.

While office brokers are typically chasing new business to town or urging existing firms to grow, they’re now looking for office space for government agencies, which have emerged as prominent players in the local office real estate sector.

Following the bloody recession and its brutal aftermath, one word has begun to creep back into the local industrial real estate lexicon: optimism.

“I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods yet but there’s a bunch of positive momentum out there,” said Jim Mercer, executive vice president of brokerage services at CB Richard Ellis Memphis. “People are cautiously optimistic.

Helen of Troy Ltd., a manufacturer and distributor of household products, has finalized plans to build a 1.3 million-square-foot distribution facility in Olive Branch.

The $37 million facility will be constructed on a 77-acre site in the Whispering Woods development on Polk Lane in DeSoto County. CB Richard Ellis Memphis brokers Patrick Burke, Tommy Jackson and Jim Mercer represented Panattoni Development Co. in the land sale and build-to-suit negotiations to Helen of Troy, which closed on Dec. 28.

Much of 2012’s commercial real estate deals could be summed up in one of three phrases: speculative construction, institutional buyers and unusual transactions.

The first quarter was kicked off when Industrial Developments International Inc. revealed plans to add one build-to-suit and two speculative buildings in its Crossroads Distribution Center in Olive Branch – marking the area’s first spec construction since 2008.

A few months ago, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. was recounting to an audience of businessmen a recent breakfast he’d had with a site location agent.

That agent had a client out of California looking at sites in the Memphis area for a project. The location agent had drawn up what the financials for the project might look like – and it included $25,000 in attorney’s fees.

In Memphis’ small commercial real estate network, it’s not uncommon for brokers to be on opposite sides of the negotiating table one hour then clinking beers in celebration at Jim’s Place East the next.

John Mercer does not take over as 2012 president of the Memphis Area Association of Realtors Commercial Council until Jan. 1, but he is already working hard planning several big MAAR events for early next year.

Since the 1950s, Memphis has been building industrial space for users to benefit from the city’s transportation amenities, which now includes five Class 1 railroads, several interstate highways, the nation’s fourth-busiest inland waterway port and the world’s second-largest cargo airport.

Although the overall commercial real estate market is soft, Memphis’ industrial sector appears to be gathering more steam than any other category.

With the arrival of such large projects like the Electrolux and Mitsubishi plants and Norfolk Southern Corp.’s new Fayette County intermodal yard, industry professionals hope ancillary business will bolster the industrial market by sparking new development, attracting new investors and enhancing the area’s economy.

With significant commercial real estate progress in 2010, DeSoto County’s stamina has no end in sight, industry professionals say.

DeSoto County is similar to that of other areas with a handful of submarkets that continue to do well and bolster the rest of the region. One of the county’s most prominent firms, Chuck Roberts Commercial Real Estate, has seen thriving submarkets that are located just a few miles from struggling ones.

The Memphis Area Association of Realtors Commercial Council held its annual board of directors meeting Thursday, approving three new members for its 2011 board.

Greg deWitt of Grubb & Ellis Co. will take over one of the council’s director seats next year before becoming the council’s vice president in 2012. He will inherit the seat occupied by John Mercer of Highwoods Properties in 2011.

Barbara Kritchevsky has been appointed to the newly created position of director of advocacy at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphrey’s School of Law.

Kritchevsky has been a law professor at the university since 1983, and for the past 20 years has served as a faculty adviser to the school’s Moot Court Board and also served as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs.

A healthy industrial real estate market is imperative for Memphis to live up to its longtime moniker of “America’s Distribution Center” or its new one of “America’s Aerotropolis.”

In other words, a viable warehouse sector – which bolsters the city’s ability to store goods before they’re distributed and supports the city’s robust transportation assets – is mission critical no matter how the city’s marketing is phrased.

Industrial real estate in many ways is the backbone of Memphis’ economy, providing warehouse and distribution space to the myriad transportation companies that move freight in and out of the city.

That sector began 2009 by showing rare signs of weakness, suffering its first three-month period of negative absorption since late 2007. The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area saw a loss of 521,677 square feet in the first quarter, according to quarterly data released last week by the Memphis office of CB Richard Ellis.

Janice Stanton, managing director of investment research for Cushman & Wakefield in New York, discussed the global financial crisis and how it has impacted commercial real estate at Wednesday’s Commercial Property Forecast Summit, at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre and sponsored by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors Commercial Council.

Sale after sale, lease after lease, DeSoto County in 2008 retained its role as the area’s dominant player in industrial real estate with a host of high-profile transactions.

The submarket notched a metro-wide high of 1.1 million square feet in positive absorption in the third quarter of 2008, according to the most recent data from CB Richard Ellis. All year, however, DeSoto County saw big deals get inked as companies either moved into the area from outside the region or relocated to the county from Memphis.

The economic slowdown is taking its toll on Memphis businesses in the form of layoffs and store closures, sagging real estate values and rising foreclosures. But the logistics and distribution industries are weathering the storm as well as any sector – for now, at least.

It’s not every day that a 10-acre industrial site is put on the auction block – selling absolute to the highest bidder, no less – but a Cordova property zoned for heavy industrial use and about 80 percent occupied goes to bid next week.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center will present Dr. Howard Brody from the University of Texas, who will present "Using Race to Sell Drugs: Pharmaceutical Marketing and Challenges to Medical Professionals" today at 8 a.m. in the North Auditorium of the Coleman Building, 956 Court Ave.

The Memphis Rotary Club will meet today at noon at the Memphis Cook Convention Center, 255 N. Main St. The speaker will be the Rev. Jim Lawson. Cost is $18 at the door. R.S.V.P. to Taylor Hughes, 526-1318 or taylor@memphisrotary.org.

The Engineers' Club of Memphis Inc. will meet today at noon at the Holiday Inn-University of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave. The cost is $12 and no reservations are required. Joseph M. Spain, Tennessee regional manager at Contech Bridge Solutions, will speak about "Prefabricated Bridge Solutions."

Bolstered by nearly 1 million square feet of absorption in the Southeast submarket, industrial real estate in Memphis registered a steady second quarter, according to the latest report by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Memphis.

When large companies such as ServiceMaster and Nucor Steel start looking for possible sites to open facilities or relocate their headquarters, the first thing they often consider is available incentives.

After a few dark years followed by a tentative climb, the Memphis-area industrial development market is creeping further into the light.

With net absorption reaching about 5 million square feet in 2005 and on track for similar growth in 2006, developers are holding out hope that last year's market turnaround could have staying power, said Jim Mercer, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis Memphis.

The debate is heating up over a possible shake-up in the way tax breaks are handed out locally. But the idea doesn't appear to have roiled the industrial real estate market or sent developers and landowners scurrying over the county line just yet.

Optimism and recovery are key words for Memphis' industrial real estate market, with vacancies on the decline and a healthy level of new product being delivered in the market.

"The overall national economy has finally turned the corner," said Jim Mercer, executive vice president of industrial services with the Memphis office of CB Richard Ellis. "We feel momentum will continue through the end of this year."

For any number of reasons signs of economic improvement, a perceived decline in interest in the situation in Iraq, and so on conditions look to be slowly but...

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Belz Enterprises is putting the finishing touches on a 227,500-square-foot, built-to-suit distribution center in Southeast Memphis for Cali...

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79. Archived Article: Real Focus (r-up) - Tuesday, December 26, 2000 Real Estate Focus Year 2000 Roundup Overall, 2000 was a good year for Memphis real estate By MARY DANDO The Daily News What a long, strange year its been. It was a phenomenal year for home sales, according to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors...

80. Archived Article: Marketplace - Monday, November 6, 2000 Industrial growth breaking records Industrial growth on record-breaking pace By SUE PEASE The Daily News For most of the last decade, Memphis has seen incredible growth in the industrial marketplace. Local industry representatives say it doesnt look...

81. Archived Article: Idb (lead) - Tuesday, May 16, 2000 By Stacey Wiedower SBC plan to bring 124 jobs to county By Stacey Wiedower The Daily News Several projects that would create jobs and add industry to the Memphis area are scheduled for consideration by the Industrial Development Board at its monthly...

82. Archived Article: Real Review Lj - Tuesday, April 4, 2000 Former Hamilton Beach Former Hamilton Beach facility purchased Collierville Business Center LLC has purchased the 125,000-square-foot Hamilton Beach facility for $2.7 million, according to a special warranty deed filed in the Shelby County Registers...

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84. Archived Article: Memos - Wednesday, April 8, 1998 J J. Russell Phillips Jr. has joined Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC as an associate. Prior to joining the firm, he was a partner at Carpenter and Phillips in Macon, Ga. He received his bachelors degree from the University of Mississippi and his la...

85. Archived Article: Back - Thursday, August 21, 1997 ASICS to open hub ASICS to open hub in DeSoto County ASICS TIGER Corp., a manufacturer of performance driven athletic shoes, apparel and accessories, soon will break ground on a new distribution center in DeSoto County. ASICS TIGER will be the first...

86. Archived Article: Calendar - Monday, April 21, 1997 April 21 April 21 East Memphis Business and Professional Women will meet at the Lulu Grille, 565 Erin Drive. Networking begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m. The speaker will be Laurel Niday, owner of Family Connection. The cost is $15. For rese...

87. Archived Article: Calendar - Monday, April 14, 1997 April 14 April 14 Professional Secretaries International will meet at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel, 2625 Thousand Oaks Blvd. The cost is $13. For more information, call Jo Meadows at 224-9662. April 15 Memphis Human Resources Association will meet a...